Stephen S. Hudson is an emerging expert on metal music, focusing on fans and musicians’ embodied experiences of rhythm, timbre, and song form.
He is an Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Occidental College, after previously teaching at Northwestern University (where he received a PhD in Music Theory & Cognition) and the University of Richmond. He is an emerging expert on metal music, focusing on fans and musicians’ embodied experiences of rhythm, timbre, and song form. He has recently published about metal in the journals Music Theory Spectrum and Music Theory Online, and is currently writing a book titled Heaviness in Metal Music. He is also currently working on a project about harmony in R&B and Soul music, including recent and upcoming presentations at the Society for Music Theory and Theorizing African American Music. In his teaching, Prof. Hudson is committed to developing new teaching approaches that diversify music theory beyond the classical canon and provide more tools for songwriters and producers.
Prof. Hudson also has recent or forthcoming book reviews and other short articles in Journal of Music Theory, Intégral, Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy, and Metal Music Studies. He is co-chair of the American Musicological Society’s Music and Dance Study Group. In his spare time, he enjoys playing classical and baroque cello and riding his bicycle.